Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Delaney there?

From the second that we first started talking at 7:30a.m., Delaney and I were immediately discussing people and their behavior.

We started with people who speak for a living — how so many are animated and outgoing when in front of an audience, but extremely self-conscious when they first meet someone individually. I suggested that the difference was once explained to me as a matter of who is holding the microphone. I suppose in today’s environment that could be considered the ultimate permission to talk.

Delaney and I discussed talking to the audience before a presentation and other ways to draw an audience into the experience, ways to make a relationship before the first word is spoken. We shared the pain of watching someone who had memorized every word, and the misuse of PowerPoint PowerPoint. We were more interested in mindmapping and storytelling. It figures that two teachers would be. We spent the most time talking about how people remember stories and the ideas that stories illuminate.

Dr. Kirk taught me a term I’d not heard before — impression management — managing how people perceive us. We discussed the way teachers manage their image so that students respond with respect for them and what they have to say. That made me think about how I did that with the first graders in my classes. It came up how our impressions affect whether we cut someone a little slack when we find they have reached a rough spot. I told her that’s why I studied harder for the first test than the final in my college classes — the first test said who I was. Delaney knew exactly what I meant.

Delaney wanted everyone to know that the book list she asked for is longer than she could have imagined, and now she has her work cut out deciding which books to use when class begins in January. That led us into a discussion of how she was thinking that her next book might come from her blog. I pointed out that knowing that now works in her favor; she can write her blog with the book in mind. We talked about ways to do that. One way was to write a series of blog posts that would become each chapter — later she could pull the content together already organized, rewriting only to smooth the segues.

So here I sit with the gauntlet on the flat screen before me. I feel the beads of sweat beginning to form on my forehead. Where will I find five things about me that the committee of me will agree are interesting enough folks will want to read them? Perhaps if I pick five things and put them in story form. That will make the difference.

Once Upon a Time: Five Things in a Story
Once upon a time a little girl was born, and though today many people know her, details from those days aren’t well known. That’s what this story will share.

The little girl’s surname at birth is Italian. It’s long and musical. It means “star of the mountain.”

It could be that the star name ties to the branch in her family tree where she shows up. She’s the second daughter in three generations on one side of the family. On the other side, she’s part of the third generation that is made of two boys and a girl. Figure that one out.

She was a long-awaited daughter of an Italian father. So when she finally came, her proud papa rented a 40-acre farm and hired an accordion band for a party.

She was painfully shy as child, totally not a risk taker — even grass was suspect in her book. People, however, could win her over. That’s how she ended up with two childhood nicknames — Bashful and Mushy. They came at almost the same moment in time.

Her mother sent the three year old off to traditional dance training because she said the child was clumsy. The little gifl must been very clumsy because she was still training 14 years later.

The rest of the story is not nearly so interesting. . . .

Ah, to have the best life details of your story show up before you are four. I guess worse things can happen. 🙂

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